Fit and Healthy on Route 66: Queeny County Park

Winter Hike at Queeny Park

Queeny Park is just a few minutes north of the Manchester Road alignment of Route 66 as it traverses West St. Louis County. The park has two entrances. If you are traveling West on Manchester, turn right on Mason Road and look for the entrance that says “Dog Museum”. If you are traveling East on Manchester, turn left on Weidman Road to access the park. There is no way to drive from one entrance to the other without leaving the park, but you can walk between the two entrances.

Queeny Park in Summer

When I was young, I used to love to go to Queeny Park to play on the very advanced and unusual playground equipment for the time. Lately I’ve used the park for biking and hiking. There are some paved trails and some gravel surfaced trails. The park is hilly so either way you’ll get a good workout – it’s especially good in my opinion for practicing hill climbing if you’re new to mountain biking. You’ll get enough of a challenge to give you something to work toward but most of the hills are not so difficult that you’ll be overly discouraged. The park is large and there are enough trails to enjoy a moderately long or short excursion depending on what you are looking for.

Yes you read the first paragraph correctly – at the Mason Road entrance there is indeed a Museum of the Dog. I remember the controversy surrounding this Museum when it was first proposed. A lot of people thought it sounded ridiculous – I haven’t visited it myself. It consists of a collection of artwork devoted dogs in an historic circa 1853 house. I’ve had very enjoyable visits to a barbed wire museum and a vacuum cleaner museum which probably sound like very odd attractions to most, so who knows, it might be good – perhaps it’s worthy of the tradition of eccentric attractions on Route 66. There are lots of dog walkers in the park so there does appear to be a large built-in audience! If you’re traveling Route 66 with canine companions this might be an especially good stop to make – dogs are allowed in the museum and you can give your pets and yourself a workout on the trails.

Photos of Queeny Park

Queeny Park Web Site

Fit and Healthy on Route 66: Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center

Photo by Mark Stauter.

On February 12, 2012 a meeting of the Route 66 Association of Missouri Publication Committee was held in Kirkwood, MO. In the past after these meetings I have headed to nearby Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center for a hike after the meeting. On this occasion, Mark Stauter joined me. There are three trails to choose from. First we took the 0.70 mi Broken Ridge Trail then we switched over to the 1.20 mi Hickory Ridge Trail. Both trails are paved with asphalt. This makes for easy footing in dry weather but do be careful if conditions are at all wet or icy because there are steep hils and the asphalt could get slippery.

The trails are short, but hilly enough to give you a decent workout. Despite the close proximity of interstate highways and homes, there is a lot of wildlife to see. We saw deer, chipmunks and many birds including tufted titmice and robins. There was such an abundance of robins in one area that the sound of them rustling through leaves to look for food was quite striking. Not a rare sight by any means, but a delight! I’m not certain but I may have seen some dark-eyed juncos. We definitely heard woodpeckers. If you happen to come here when the visitor center is open, it has excellent exhibits and you can borrow binoculars for birdwatching.

For directions and more information, go to Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center

More photos on Carolyn’s Facebook page

Fit and Healthy on Route 66: Onondaga Cave State Park

Oak Ridge Trail at Onondaga Cave State Park

On a recent Saturday, there was a meeting of the Route 66 Association of Missouri Motor Tour Committee at Skippy’s in Leasburg, MO. My friend Mark Reed tagged along so we could go on a hike after the meeting at Onondaga Cave State Park, about 7 miles down the road from Skippy’s. It had rained earlier in the day, but by the time of our hike there was only a light mist still falling – it felt delightful on my face! It’s usually so dry in the winter that the moist environment made me feel rejuvenated and refreshed.

Moss Covered Rock

During the winter season, there are no cave tours and we had the park almost to ourselves. I had hiked the Deer Run Trail on a previous visit so this time I chose the 3 mile Oak Ridge Trail for our hike. During wet weather, there are many small temporary waterfalls along the trail so for most of the hike the only sounds were the gentle trickle of water and occasional twitter of small birds. The trail is on rocky and hilly terrain so there was little mud to contend with and there were only a couple of spots where footing was questionable. We were astonished by the beauty of the abundant lichens, mosses and ferns – it was like walking in a giant terrarium!

A highlight of our day was reaching a ridge with an open glade covered with copper-colored grasses. We enjoyed the subtle colors of the winter landscape and views of the surrounding hills. Eventually we reached a connector trail to the Deer Run Trail and since we both had some life left in our legs we decided to do part of that trail as well. There is a letterbox on the Deer Run Trail that I had found on a previous visit in 2010. I had my letterboxing journal and stamp with me so I logged another find for that box. If you want to find out about letterboxing and get clues to find that box, go to www.atlasquest.com. After wrapping up our hike we looked for and found another quick drive-by letterbox in Bourbon.

Here are some more photos from our hike.

Fit and Healthy on Route 66: Kaintuck Hollow Trail

Impromptu mini Chrysler convention at Zeno's

On Saturday July 10, the Route 66 Association of Missouri held a meeting in Richland at The Cave Restaurant and Resort. Any time we have a meeting that is anywhere near Rolla, several of us end up staying the night at Zeno’s and making a weekend out of it. I was in the mood to actually get my mountain bike dirty for a change, so I consulted my copy of the book Show Me Mountain Biking to see if there were any suitable trails near Rolla. I decided to try the Kaintuck Hollow Trail in Mark Twain National Forest, near Newburg. I printed out a forest service map to take with me since the network of trails looked like it might be challenging to navigate without getting lost.

Robert at Cookin' from Scratch. Quinn and Natalie in the background.

On Sunday morning, after mass at St. Patrick’s and a hearty and delicious breakfast at Cookin’ From Scratch in Doolitle, my brother Larry and I headed for the trail. Since Larry does not have a mountain bike, the plan was to park at the second parking area past the Mill Creek Recreation Area and for Larry to walk part of the way while I biked on ahead of him. He had brought a book to read while waiting for my return, and the first parking area looked like a much more pleasant place to rest and read a book, so when he was done walking he moved my Jeep to the first parking area.

Here is a scan of the forest service map marked in yellow to show the (probable) route I ended up taking. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.

Butterflies were abundant on the trail

I encountered water on the trail right away. I’m not afraid to get my mountain bike wet, but some of the water was muddy so I walked the bike through to avoid splashing myself with muddy water. The first segment on the Cedar trail was lovely, a nice easy ride with wildflowers all around. That soon changed when I turned onto the Squirrel trail and started to climb uphill. I don’t mind admitting that this portion was WAY beyond my ability and I walked the bike uphill. I don’t see how anyone could ride a bike up this part – the trail here was mostly washed out ruts with fist sized rocks and loose gravel. But apparently people do – I saw some red paint on a rock from someone wiping out, I presume. Even walking the bike up was not easy.

Pine and Oak forest

Once on top of the ridge, the trail became quite rideable and lots of fun. The terrain here was mostly hard packed dirt or small gravel with an occasional rock through open glades, oak forest and pine forest.There was occasional sand and mud and frequent fallen branches which for the most part I could ride right over. I had to dismount a few times to get the bike over a log. Occasionally there was a trail marker where two paths met – the trail markers here have little graphical icons indicating what section you’re on, such as an Acorn or a Deer Track – but all the intersections I came across were not marked so for much of the time I was not really sure where I was.

When I started to descend from the ridge, I thought I was on the Redbird trail and I planned to meet the road at the bottom and take it back to the Mill Creek Recreation Area where the Jeep was parked. The long ride down was a highlight of the ride. The trail was not so steep that I feared for life and limb, but steep enough to be challenging and fun. It was necessary to steer very carefully to avoid large rocks and ruts and other hazards, and to avoid building up too much speed. My legs sure appreciated the rest! I was dismayed however when I got to the bottom – there was a trail marker there and it did not look like a Redbird – it looked more like a Grouse! I was on the opposite side of the ridge from where I wanted to be. But at least I knew where I was.

Mist over Mill Creek

I decided to head for the nearest road and take it back to the parking area even though it was the long way around – ascending that ridge again was too exhausting to contemplate! My dismay soon turned to delight at the interesting scenery around me. There was old silo covered with vines and graffiti and a low water bridge crossing beautiful Mill Creek – this time I rode through the shallow water with no trouble. A mysterious mist hovered over the stream, leading me to believe that Wilkins Spring, which I knew was close from the map, was feeding into the stream nearby.

Artesian well at Mill Creek Recreation Area

I soon found the road and was back at the parking site much more quickly than I expected. There is an artesian well here with a spigot from which you can get cold, potable water. I got a towel out of the Jeep and made a beeline to the well to wash the sweat, dirt and spiderwebs off of my weary limbs and face. Ahh! I refilled my water bottles and relieved my thirst with the delicious spring water. The three water bottles I brought were barely enough for this trail. What a great way to end a ride! I gave my wrinkled sweat-stained map to a couple who were about to begin their ride since the one they had was not as detailed.

I will be back to this area – there are many interesting features I either missed or want to explore more closely. I highly recommend this trail to anyone who wants a fairly strenuous hike or off-road bike ride and wants to feel like they are in the middle of nowhere and enjoy the beauty of Ozark scenery while only a few miles from the Interstate.